Thursday, June 20, 2013

Miserable Pony

Good news! Lilly's tummy is 100% better. Yay!

I texted the pictures to my vet on Monday and she told me to keep an eye on Lilly's temp and report back if it was still puffy at the end of the week. She said it could take up to 10 days for it to start looking better, but it was almost gone on Tuesday when I visited, and today it was completely back to normal. I'm still not sure what the deal was, but I'm glad it wasn't anything serious. With the onslaught of bugs lately, it could have been a bug bite, she could have kicked herself, or it could have been any other myriad of things. Thanks to everyone for chiming in. It was nice not to see any of you type the words "OMG! CALL YOUR VET NOW!" It always puts my mind at ease a bit.

But as is the case sometimes, we go from one thing to another. Lilly has an allergy(s) to something this time of year. We deal with it every year from June-ish until September-ish, and her eyes will get puffy, teary, and fill up with gook. I've toyed with the idea of having her tear ducts flushed, but my vet doesn't think it will help, because if it's allergies, she'll just continue to have issues. It is MUCH better when she wears a fly mask, which is why there's a problem now.

I've been having trouble keeping a fly mask on my girl. I have suspicions that the neighbor horse keeps pulling it off. During the day they're the only two horses outside and I think they might hang out over the fence and play. I found her mask outside her pasture many times, and Tuesday it was completely shredded. Lilly doesn't shred things, so I think Mack got ahold of it. Luckily I have a spare, but I'm hoping that one doesn't meet certain death anytime soon.

I called my vet to let her know Lilly's tummy was better and inquired about what we can do for her eyes. Last year I dealt with it by keeping ointment in her eyes and flushing them with eye drops. Lilly loved that. Her left eye was really icky on Monday (she was sans fly mask when I found her) so my vet dropped off a thing of TriHist to try. Perhaps I won't need to treat her eyes this year if we can keep the allergies at bay. I read some of the reviews for it at SmartPak and everyone said they couldn't get their horses to eat it. Fantastic, because my girl is a picky eater, and it's kind of a granule/powder which is even worse. Good news, though, because today she licked it right out of my hand. You think you know your horse and then BAM! They make a liar out of you.

And as if that wasn't bad enough, with all the wet weather we've been having, she's developed a fungus on her hind legs over her canon bone, and she has some irritation above the backs of her hooves on her front legs. I'm thinking it's a minor case of scratches, so I bought a bottle of Banixx and practically hosed her down. AND, her entire chest was covered with bumps today and she wanted me to never stop scratching them for her. Not ever. She stood there with her lip stuck out even when I stopped.

Poor, poor pony. She's falling apart right before my eyes!! So she's banished to her stall during the daytime now. I've asked the BO to turn her out only at night. Hopefully it'll help with the fungus, the scratches, the allergies, and the bug bites. She can stand there and enjoy the fan.
﻿

"It's super nice in here, lady!"

﻿Today was hoof trim day, too. Lilly's trimmer has been SLACKING and she was in desperate need of a trim. I'm so embarrassed with myself. Because her front hooves are still pretty delicate (like her), I try not to let her go so long between trims so I don't have to do all four hooves at one time. Today it was mandatory. She was a pretty good girl, but gave me a really hard time with her left front. I don't know if the hoof itself was uncomfortable, or if she was uncomfortable putting all her weight on the right front. She's good to go, now, though, and her hooves look like a million bucks. Her crater is growing out nicely and I'm pretty happy with them.
﻿

After the torture...

﻿Hopefully next week we'll be able to get back into some sort of riding routine. The house projects will be finished up this weekend and then it's game on! Can't wait to get back out in the arena and ride!

Poor Lilly. I missed the stomach booboo - so glad she's better. Paj has the same eye problems, thus the fly mask all the time. As you said, it does help. Hope she's right as rain pdq.Happy belated birthday to AJ!

Lilly! Your girl has ALL the ailments right now, glad she's on the up and up. I feel you about the moisture, i'm in Alberta and all day the entire province has been issuing evacuation orders and mass flooding warnings... so now we have mucky pastures and hoards of mosquitos.

Ick! Thankfully we don't really have a lot of mosquitos around here. Normally it's too dry, and Lilly lives where there's a lot of sand, so the drainage isn't too bad. We have plenty of other bugs to make up for them, though!

For the front cannon bone fungus, if it's what Junior gets, the best thing for it is Kirk's Castille bar soap. I didn't believe them when they told me that, but it's kind of amazing and super cheap. I rub the bar on during a bath, then gently use my scrubber and the gunk just goes away.

I still swear by the SmartBug-Off. My vet explained the allergie thing as a number of triggers between bugs, plants, etc. and the horse can tollerate them fine up to a point and then the compounded allergic reactions become bothersome. It's impossible to avoid most of the allergens, but since we started the Bug-off Junior doesn't get hives anymore. He had big, wide-spread hives every summer until I started the supplement. Seems to take the edge off, plus the diatomaceous earth helps the poop not attract flies so if she's stalled that'll help keep her area sans bugs. I still use fly spray and a mask and a sheet when he's out overnight, but I really do think the supplement helps.

Thanks for the tips! I usually just shave off as much hair as I can and scrub with an anti-fungus shampoo, then spray with Banixx. I'd rather use something that works, though!

I might end up adding the SmartBug-Off to her SmartPak. The bugs just seem extra bad this year and even her fly sheet is no match for them. I feel bad when I find her hiding herself away in the lean-to!

Poor Lilly. Cash gets the same goopy eyes, except his are worse when it's very windy out. Fly masks definitely help, but only if they stay on. And Cash has fungus too, what's up with that? I use MTG, which seems to work for MOST cases. If it doesn't then my vet has recommended scrubbing gently with Chlorahex (it's an anti-fungal scrub). It doesn't dry the skin like Betadine can, and it doesn't seem to sting either.

The best part is that the fungus shows up really well on white legs! Thanks for the tip on Chlorahex... I keep a list of all this stuff in case one thing isn't working, I'll have something else to try!